This invention generally relates to a shifter housing assembly for a multiple speed power transmission. More particularly, this invention relates to an assembly of the foregoing character which includes two or more shifter rods that extend parallel to one another, a system of poppet interlocks that serves to maintain the shifter rods in their desired positions, a housing with suitable passages therein for the shifter rods and for the elements of the system of poppet interlocks, and retainers for retaining the shifter rods and the elements of the system of poppet interlocks in the appropriate passages of the housing.
The shifter housing of a multiple speed power transmission, for example, a manual shift transmission for a truck engine, is, typically, a complex part which is produced from aluminum or a ferrous metal by a casting process such as a die casting process. Heretofore, housings of this type required extensive machining to provide suitable passages to accommodate the shifter rods that are carried thereby and the reciprocating movement required of each of such shifter rods to achieve the changes in gear ratios that are required of the associated transmission. The extensive amount of machining required to provide suitable passages in a shifter housing for all of the shifter rods to be carried thereby, especially in a truck transmission having a relatively large number of forward speeds, for example, seven (7) forward speeds in addition to the customary reverse speed, plus all of the machining required to provide suitable passages in the shifter housing for all of the elements of the system of poppet interlocks for maintaining the shifter rods in their desired positions, added greatly to the cost of manufacture of the shifter housing itself and, thus, to the cost of manufacture of the assembly that included such shifter housing. Further, the use of such machined passages, which were circumferentially closed, added greatly to the cost of assembling the shifter rods, the elements of the system of interlocks and the shifter housing itself into an assembly of such components, due to the need to "thread" the shifter rods and the elements of the system of interlocks into their respective passages, that is, by moving such rods and such elements along their longitudinal axes into such passages.